Mickey Loomis hedges his bet on the New Orleans Saints repeating

With the opening game of the 2010 NFL season just more than a week away and fan expectations at a fever pitch, New Orleans Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis gave the New Orleans Touchdown Club several reasons Monday why the team won't repeat as Super Bowl champions.

Ted Jackson/The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis said the team can win the Super Bowl again. And, well, he said there are reasons they can't as well.

And then delivered several reasons why they might.

To top it off, Loomis even answered the question on the lips of several Touchdown Club members who gathered at the Embassy Suites hotel in the Warehouse District to hear Loomis and representatives of several other local gridiron programs -- including Tulane Coach Bob Toledo and Southeastern Louisiana Coach Mike Lucas -- speak. The query came quickly from the back of the room: Who is the Saints' backup quarterback?

"Chase Ramsey," Loomis quipped immediately, blending the names of Chase Daniel and Patrick Ramsey, two signal callers who have both performed well in the preseason.
But while that question is pressing now, it does not top the one overarching the 2010 campaign.

"It's all we're getting asked, 'Can you repeat?'" Loomis began. "And (Coach) Sean (Payton) and I have had several discussions about this, and there are a number of reasons why we won't win the Super Bowl this year."

Loomis broke them down as follows:

History and odds. The NFL has had only seven teams repeat, although the Steelers did so twice. "The odds are against us," Loomis said.

It's New Orleans' first trip to the summit. "Can we handle success or will we get fat and lazy?" Loomis asked.

Selfishness -- what Loomis labeled, "the disease of 'me,'" -- could infect the team.

There's no crisis at the moment, and thus no way of knowing how this squad might deal with one.

The Saints are marked men. "We can't play as well as we did last year, we have to play better," Loomis said.

Offseason distractions. In this group, Loomis lumped the potential disaster that ensues when everyone starts believing their glowing press reports and close friends and loved ones, "telling us how great we are."

The injury bug. How hard will it bite the Saints in 2010?

"And, finally, maybe we're not good enough," Loomis said.

Such dedicated Who Dats may quail before such a laundry list of obstacles, but Loomis was quick to cite a remedy for each.

The team's character is expected to help overcome several of them. Payton, quarterback Drew Brees, linebacker Jonathan Vilma, defensive end Will Smith and cornerback Jabari Greer were players Loomis named as the sort who will stabilize the team when a crisis arrives.

"Some of these guys don't get the credit they deserve," Loomis said. "But the disease of me -- I think we have a team-first approach. And we will handle the crisis. I don't know what it'll be yet, but we'll handle it."

One key element is psychological, Loomis argued, and it is the sort of boon possessed only by elite teams.

"We've crossed that plateau and gone from a team that's hoping to win to one that is expecting to win," he said. "When you're a team that is hoping to win, when adversity hits during a game, that can be tough to overcome. That won't happen to us."

With the Saints facing their last tough preseason personnel decisions -- two players must be cut today, and the team must be trimmed to the 53-man regular-season limit by Saturday afternoon -- Loomis was circumspect about the direction the franchise may take, as evidenced by his response to the quarterback question.

For example, he was asked about Al Woods, the Saints' fourth-round draft choice out of LSU. While Woods has not been a standout during training camp or in preseason games thus far, Loomis chalked some of that up to the learning curve all rookies must deal with.

Loomis also declined to speculate on the fate of some veteran players fighting for roster spots. Pierson Prioleau, for instance, is a safety who also plays special teams, and that is a combination Payton has said will be critical when the decisions are made. Loomis acknowledged Prioleau has played well, but his status for Thursday night's game against the Titans is unclear after he left the Chargers game with a knee injury and did not practice Monday. Loomis said he is not ready to declare any player a lock.

Well, save one player. When ticking off the reasons the Saints could repeat, Loomis paused at the end of his list.

"And I think I mentioned -- did I forget to mention that we have No. 9 on our team?"

PRACTICE VISITORS: The Saints welcomed several guests to their indoor practice Monday. One was former Colts Coach Tony Dungy, an inspirational speaker and TV commentator for NBC.

He has some familiarity about the pitfalls of repeating as Super Bowl champions. Dungy's Colts won Super Bowl XLI after the 2006 season, but the team did not make it back to the championship game until last season after Dungy had retired.

Payton has made a point this camp of bringing in various people with such experience to talk to the team, and NBC will broadcast the Saints' opener against the Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 9 at the Superdome.

Also on hand was "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft and a production crew that is working on a segment about Brees that is slated to air sometime after the season begins.

COACH SUSPENDED: Defensive line coach Travis Jones was suspended 30 days without pay for his admitted role in a real estate scam involving 40 people in northwestern Texas.

Loomis said Jones is cooperating with the federal investigation and will take part in a program to educate others in the NFL about his experience.

In June, Jones entered a plea of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in U.S. District Court in Texas' Eastern District. Court records show the scam netted him about $86,000.

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James Varney can be reached at jvarney@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3386.